Roku are still taking good care of their older devices, as it was recently revealed that they are planning to release upgrades for the Roku 2 and Roku 3, introducing several new features to both devices. This became known after the devices’ new versions appeared on the websites of retailers, with one of them listing the release date as April 13.
And while Roku themselves haven’t confirmed the news officially yet, if they really are planning to release the devices on April 13, we should get an official statement from them soon enough. It’s possible that they might want to polish some of their marketing materials before officially making the announcement, or they simply have a specific announcement date in mind and want to stick to that.
What will users get with the new versions of the devices? It’s expected that they will offer faster processing capabilities, and will also come with voice control functionality. It’s worth noting that voice functionality has only been mentioned with regards to the Roku 3 so far, and we don’t know if the Roku 2 will also support the feature, but we should find out soon enough.
There are also some minor revisions in the visual design of the device, with a horizontal LED replacing the vertical one, and the remote control will now include extra quick launch buttons for various apps. Users can use the remote to immediately go to YouTube, Google Play and more.
Sadly, there is no indication that any of the devices is going to support a 4K resolution with the upgrade, but on the other hand, we have rumors that the company is going to announce a separate device with those capabilities soon enough. The rumored Roku 4 is apparently going to be revealed as a direct upgrade to the Roku 3, but we don’t know when the company is planning to do that.
It is certainly great that they continue to support older entries into the line while releasing newer models though, as the Roku 2, 3 and eventually 4 could each have their own unique spot on the market, and it makes sense for the company to keep all projects alive for the time being.
Hopefully though, the Roku 4 will come with some more features that will make it worth upgrading to, instead of only using its 4K resolution as its main selling point. That would certainly be disappointing to some fans of the company, but then again, Roku have proven that they care about their customers so far, so we don’t expect any low tricks like that from them. In any case, we should find out over the next weeks/months.